Flat!

In an otherwise perfect defensive game, one mental mistake by the Coneheads in the fourth inning with two outs opened the dam for a two out four run rally by the DeGen R-8 Elite, and they went on to beat us in a very tight game, 9-7. James went deep into the 5-6 hole to snag a hot shot, but no one covered second for the force. By the time James threw to first, he threw off balance and the first baseman couldn't stretch far enough to get the out (the batter was probably safe anyway). 

The game started off oddly. On a marginally flat pitch, Marc Hamanaka struck out looking. You know what, with two strikes, swing the bat on a close pitch if you don't hear the ump call "Flat". The rest of the game, Umpire Terry Mason seemed determined to show that he was consistent - another of their hitters was called out on a flat pitch, and there were several flat ones called on us. But the Elite were more and more pissed off, and therefore the more in our favor the umpiring seemed to go.

Joe did a masterful job of going with what the umpire wanted to call, and holding the Elite to nine runs is very impressive, especially considering no more than five were earned.

In the end, the Heads couldn't muster enough offensive power to defeat the Elite. I kept thinking there would be a walk-off hit but it was not meant to be.

The defense was spectacular. In the first, D turned a 5U-2 double play to end the inning when the bases were loaded. Joe started not one, but two 1-6-3 double plays on shots up the middle. In the fifth he threw three pitched, flyouts to Haze in right and Darren in right center sandwiched around a popup to the mound. Charley made a nice stop in the 3-4 hole to get the third out in the third. Chauncey made a great "Willie Mays" Johnson running basket catch in the sixth. Randy and the right side outfielders made several good running catches.

James had another great day at the plate, 4-4 with two doubles. Darren was 3-3, and Heffe was 1-1 with two walks. But once again, we proved scoring under ten runs will not win you many softball games as we also hit into three double plays ourselves.

Milestones:

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